Lionel Messi vs. Brazilian Football Heritage

We can bet that you, have found yourself inside one of these debates. The late years of their careers shifted the tides toward Messi, who is now according to some the best football player to ever graced the field. While many CR7 fans would disagree, there is also another nation that lives, breathes, and loves football more than any other - Brazil.
If you ask Brazilians' they can give you 5 of their footballers that they see as superior to the Rosario wunderkind. We're going to touch on that subject later on. For now, we're going to focus on a campaign and survey conducted by Stake and their ambassador Sergio Kun Aguero.
Messi and Kun are as close as two men could be, so it's no wonder that the former City man is biased. If you ask Aguero he believes that Lionel Messi is so good that his Inter Miami side would compete for silverware even in the Premier League. Many fans from South America share this opinion.
Stake.com together with Censuswide did a fan survey that deducted that the former Barcelona legend is the top player in all categories when it comes to SA-born players. Fans see him as the popular GOAT putting him ahead of Brazilian legends such as Pele and Ronaldinho. More than one thousand fans participated in the survey and they all agree that Messi is the king.
Aguero agrees with this and even believes that if given an opportunity, Leo could lead Inter Miami to the Premier League title. For Aguero, Messi has been the GOAT for some time now which he accentuated when he welcomed the Argentina national team with a herd of goats. According to a survey Aguero oversaw, 36% of South American fans believe that Messi is the best footballer the continent ever produced. Even some Brazilians had to agree and scream: Lionel Messi, the greatest South American football player
You can agree or not, but according to fans, Lionel Messi is by far the best player the world has ever witnessed. He was voted ahead of the likes of Pele and Ronaldinho from Brazil and his compatriot and the biggest Argentinian legend before Messi's time, Diego Armando Maradona. One could argue that the survey was done among younger demographics as the likes of Neymar and Thiago Silva made the cut, together with the likes of Ronaldo R9, Zico, and Daniel Passarella.
While this group of fans decided that Lionel Messi is the undisputed GOAT, many Brazilians would disagree. After all, they are a national team with the most World Cup glory in the world. This was all achieved through great national selection, superb individual talent, and years of building national identity both among the players and the fans.
You can be a fan of Messi or not, but don't put him on the pedestal before you see the Brazilian All-Time XI fan survey. Some of these names can stand toe-to-toe with Messi any day of the week. So, take a look at the best Brazil produced through the ages and tell us what you think.
According to a survey done by Stake, under the supervision of Sergio Kun Aguero, we bring you the fan-surveyed best XI in Brazil's history. This team is so good, that the likes of Rivaldo and Kaka failed to make the cut. Both men had distinguished national team and club careers yet it was not enough.
When you take a look at the players who did you will see why. Let's start with the goalkeeper.
Dida was a cornerstone of Brazil's national team and AC Milan during the 2000s. A unique GK with superb control of his zone and a PK master. He won both the World Cup and Olympic Games with Brazil. With his unique appearance, it was easy for fans to fall in love with him and remember him decades after his career was over.
Defense is where the fun starts for this Brazilian team. If they were to compete today, both global and national football tournaments would be won by them. It would be a slew of easy achievements when you have Roberto Carlos and Cafu flanking your center-backs. On the right, you have arguably the best right back in the history of the game who captained Brazil to a World Cup. His partner on the left, Roberto Carlos was a menace in both attack and defense. When you add the fact that he was a dead ball specialist there's no wonder he made the cut.
The All-Time Brazil defense would be anchored by none other than the most recent Brazilian CB darling Thiago Silva and the legendary Domingos da Guia who is seen as the best player Brazil ever produced at the position. No modern defense could top these two. While Brazilian all-time defense is a masterpiece of the game, we all know that the fun with Brazilians starts when we move further upfield.
The holding midfielders and the creative part of this team's formation would fall on two of the best midfielders the world has ever seen. We are talking about Sokrates and Zico. In today's market, players such as Sokrates and Zico would cost more than $200 million. One is a midfield general, and the other a force of creativity unparalleled to this day. With more than 100 goals from free-kicks, Zico was a player whose success and style of play were hard to mimic. No one came close both in Brazil and in the world to his achievements. When paired with Sokrates in the national team, you knew that success was guaranteed.
Now, we're moving toward the flanks and the younger fans of the game will hear the names they are familiar with, Ronaldinho and Neymar. These two lads share a similar career trajectory by having early success with the national team while also playing their club football for Barcelona and PSG. Ronaldinho is seen as one of the game's last magicians, and his success laid down the foundations for the success Lionel Messi later achieved with Barcelona. Goals and assists came naturally for Dinho, but what put him head and shoulders above the rest was his dribbling skills which made kids all over the world fall in love with his game.
Neymar is a player of similar characteristics. With his dribbling skills, he was a phenomenon while still playing in Brazil for Santos. By moving to Europe to Barca and PSG he just further cemented his legacy. Club success pales when you see what he did for Brazil at such a young age. He is the best scorer in the history of the national team with 79 goals eclipsing the likes of Pele, R9, and Romario. For some Brazilians, he is even better than Messi and they do not allow for two to be compared.
While Neymar spent the majority of his career playing in attack, for this selection he was pushed to the wing. The reason is simple - two names stand above him. When you hear them, everything is going to be clear and easily understandable. The duo that leads this Brazilian team is the tandem of Pele and Ronaldo R9. One of these two is arguably the best player in history.
Pele was long regarded as the best player in the world of all time. His goal tally was only recently surpassed by CR7 and his WC glory will never be reached. Even the likes of Maradona, Zico, Zidane, and Beckenbauer never came close to his legacy. It is only fair for him to lead the attack for Brazil's All-Time XI.
His partner would be the famous R9. The true Ronaldo, the one that came before Cristiano, and the one nicknamed The Phenomenon. The most naturally gifted attacker in the history of the game as described by many. The speed and precision with which R9 played the game were never seen before or after him. He would be the best player of all time by a far margin if it were not for the injuries. The curse of broken knees is what got to him and took away one of the most talented players of all time. Yet, he managed to do so much in the limited time he was given. A World Cup winner and legend in Barcelona and Madrid, in Milan and Brazil. With 62 goals in 98 appearances for Brazil, he is the third-best scorer in the history of the national team behind Pele and Neymar.
It is hard to come close to this type of attacking prowess but, if anyone can do it it's Lionel Messi. A fan survey believes so, so after comparing Messi to All-Time Brazilian XI let us see how well he fares among the cream of the crop of South American strikers.
Let us be biased and claim that Brazil has the advantage here. But, that's only our opinion. According to this South American strikers of all time survey as they would put it in Portuguese, many nations have their horses for the striker role as far as South America goes.
Fans were once again adamant that no one comes close to Lionel Messi. According to this survey, Messi is the best as seen by 30% of those surveyed. It is hard to argue against him. After all, the diminutive Argentine has achieved a legendary status in the world of football. He won everything there is to be won both on the club and the national level. He was the protagonist of all those events and has certainly cemented his legacy with the most recent World Cup and Copa America wins.
But, that doesn't mean he wasn't given a run for his money. It was hard to come out on top in a group of players that included Pele. With multiple World Cups to his name and more than a thousand goals, Pele was the world's best in his prime and long after that. It took two decades on top of the game for Messi to dethrone The King. If this survey was done only a few years back, maybe he wouldn't be on top.
Also, the list doesn't end with only these two names. A close third was reserved for Ronaldo and his long-time attacking partner Romario. These two knew how to put on a show when they were paired for Brazil. A clear sign that South American football is not only Brazil and Argentina are the next two names on this list. Luis Suarez and Ivan Zamorano did wonders for their national teams. Uruguay and Chile always had a touch for manufacturing strikers and putting them to their best work for the national team.
While Brazilians are topping the list, the rest of it is reserved for a few Argentinian legends. You've probably heard about Gabriel Omar Batistuta, Alfredo di Stefano, Mario Kempes, and our own Stake ambassador Sergio Aguero. This trident would put fear into the hearts of all and any defender without a doubt. Yet, despite their illustrious careers none of them comes close to the likes of Messi, R9, or Pele.
The list was completed with the names of Diego Forlan, Alberto Spencer, and Arsenio Erico. A trio that was magnificent for their national teams and clubs but won't mean too much for a casual fan of today's game.
The game has reached a new standard and its name is Lionel Messi. Can he be topped? Can his achievements be overrun by the new generation? It remains to be seen, but as of today, if you look at the Stake's fan survey, no one comes close to Leo Messi and what he has done for the game.